There was plenty of news in Asia over the weekend, with the major headlines focused on China's big Silk Road summit, President Xi Jinping's defense of globalization and North Korea's provocative launch of another missile.

Xi Jinping, China's president
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

The headline story of the weekend was China's hosting of world leaders for the Silk Road summit in Beijing, with the Chinese government pledging more funds to the development of its One Belt, One Road plan to link China with Europe via Central Asia and maritime routes. Bloomberg has an excellent wrap of the summit: and China's additional funding for the ambitious plan:

Grounding the plan in China’s history, Xi described the Belt and Road Initiative as a "project of the century" that had its inspiration in the ancient trade routes linking the country with the world. He pledged an additional 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) for China’s Silk Road Fund, 380 billion yuan in new lending for participating nations, and 60 billion yuan in coming years to developing countries and international organizations that join the program.

The gathering of world leaders also afforded President Xi a platform to burnish his credentials as a supporter of free trade and globalization at a time when U.S. president Donald Trump is looking to implement more protectionist policies and roll back free trade agreements. The South China Morning Posthas all the details, but here is a little taste:

In his opening address to the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, Xi sought to position himself as a champion for a benevolent new world order based on “a new model of win-win and cooperation”, rather than on gunboat diplomacy or a zero-sum mindset.

“We will not follow the old way of geopolitical games during the push for the Belt and Road Initiative,” he said.

“China is willing to share its development experience with the rest of the world, but we will not intervene in other nations’ internal affairs, export our social system and development model, nor force others to accept them.”

North Korea said on Monday it had successfully conducted a newly developed mid-to-long range missile test on Sunday, supervised by leader Kim Jong Un and aimed at verifying the capability to carry a "large scale heavy nuclear warhead."

Kim accused the United States of "browbeating" countries that "have no nukes" and warned Washington not to misjudge the reality that its mainland is in the North's "sighting range for strike," the North's official KCNA news agency reported.

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There was plenty of news in Asia over the weekend, with the major headlines focused on China's big Silk Road summit, President Xi Jinping's defense of globalization and North Korea's provocative launch of another missile.

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